![]() Packer also recognises the importance of setting and the spaces people inhabit, which serve as contextual clues that broaden the dimensions of the figures illustrated.īlessed Are Those Who Mourn (Breonna! Breonna!) (2020) presents a pale-mustard interior inhabited by a figure lying across a couch, with objects including an iron, indoor plant, stovetop, and pedestal fan distinguishable amidst the sparsely defined space. Rather than repeat the viral spectacle of Black death, bodies are replaced metaphorically with bouquets symbolising the cyclicality and transience of life.' Portraiture and InteriorsĪcutely aware of the privileges and politics of representation, Packer depicts her own family and friends in her portraits-their casual, relaxed poses speaking to the artist's closeness to her subject. On the bouquet paintings, Jareh Das writes for Ocula Magazine: '. The funerary bouquet is politicised as a metaphor for the Black body, or for institutionalised racial violence. Say Her Name (2017) responded to the death of Sandra Bland, a 28-year-old Black woman who died in police custody in Texas in 2015, and is widely believed to have been murdered by the state. Though seemingly apolitical, the bouquets offer an outlet for expressing grief, and an attempt to reconcile loss and despair through the decorative function of painting. Packer first began painting flowers while studying in 2012. Mining the fragility and immediacy of the medium, Packer uses charcoal to render images that further examine the dynamics between subject and artist. Texture, line, and form is suggested rather than defined, lending the composition a casual immediacy while reflecting the intimate nature of Packer's relationship to her subject.Īlongside her paintings, Packer explores the potential for drawing as a 'counter-practice'-intending for her drawings to operate independently rather than as preparatory studies. For James III (2013) presents a carefully painted, detailed figure, curled up on the suggestion of a mattress executed in a thin, pale blue wash. The artist's selective focus is revealed through her deliberation over detail and the density of her paint application within each work. Her palette is typically restrained to a few feature tones which establish the mood of her images, as seen in the ochres of the portraits Tia (2017) and April, Restless (2017), or the pinks and reds in The Body Has Memory (2018). Paintings and DrawingsĬomposing her images through observation, memory, and improvisation, Packer paints in oils with a loose, expressive style. Jennifer Packer's works reflect a considered exploration of representation, race, and art history, subverting genres including portraiture, still life, and interiors. Packer is based in New York, where she is Assistant Professor at the Rhode Island School of Design's painting department. In 2012, she graduated with an MFA in Painting and Printmaking from Yale University. Jennifer Packer gained a BFA at Temple University's Tyler School of Art in 2007.
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